The accurate delivery of radiotherapy treatment relies on the clinical staff to ensure that a patient is correctly identified prior to treatment and that the treatment plan and equipment used are also correct. Safety checks are in place to minimize the risk of errors and current clinical practice makes use of the expertise of clinical staff to safely carry out radiotherapy treatment.
However, radiotherapists and other clinical staff work under severe time constraints. The “invisible” and complex nature of the radiotherapy treatment means that patients are often unable to understand and be confident in the accuracy of their treatment. There exists a need for a “double-check” in addition to the expertise of the clinical staff to re-assure patients and “back-up” the safety procedures carried out by radiotherapists.
Furthermore, a significant proportion of the time taken to treat patients in today's busy radiotherapy departments is the time taken to set-up the patient and the necessary equipment accessories. Any reduction in the set-up time will increase the patient throughput i.e. the number of patients that can be treated in any given day.